Support the Troops?
I believe it is very important that peaceful people NOT encourage or give any support to America’s paid mercenaries.
I don’t mean just the guys at Blackwater, cause every American who today signs up for military service isn’t doing it for love of their country or fear for our future. They are doing it for MONEY plain and simple. That and the promised education and benefits. Selfish greed, not patriotism is what really motivates these people.
We should all be asking ourselves why it is that young people in this country feel they have so few options available for their future that becoming a mercenary seems such a viable (or deadly) option.
Is it because the system has failed them? Because not getting into college and being unemployed or working at Walmart or McDonalds is the only future our society can offer?
They now pay soldiers very good money, esp. if they end up on endless tours of Iraq (war zone pay). These soldiers put their lives on the line for MONEY. Just like every terrorist out there. Yes, terrorists get paid too. It’s the same motivation, and politics really has little to do with it.
They get bonuses for signing up to Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, etc., just like American soldiers get signing bonuses. Terrorists get money for every confirmed kill. They give money to suicide bombers families. It’s all about fucking money.
With these terrorists, they often have NO other choice to keep their families alive given the daily conditions they must live under.
But with American mercenaries they DO have a choice, many in fact. They aren’t so poor and hungry that killing makes sense for survival. Perhaps they feel this is the only way they can live the American Dream of two SUVs, and a big house in the suburbs.
But as long as there are soldiers, and those paid to kill, there will be wars. And by encouraging, supporting and putting these guys on some sorta hero pedestal, we perpetuate the illusion that they are fighting for us, when in reality they are just paid mercenaries killing for money. That is how they should be treated. They SHOULD be reviled, not hailed.
I’ve once again come around to the point we were at during the height of the Vietnam War. Once again I can understand why hippies and other war protesters would spit on soldiers.
We are so blinded by the light of patriotism and nationalism, that we fail to see that by sending more boys off to war, we dig ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole.
By GLORIFYING these merceneries, we set in motion the gears that will send another whole generation to war, and ensure that our country will continue to be viewed as a selfish aggressor on the world stage.
While I could never bring myself to spit on a soldier, I understand the sentiment. It is not a personal act, but a symbolic one. And the sentiment behind it, is desperately needed if our country is ever again to be at peace.
We must come to view soldiers the way we view war. They are part of the same system, a system which has learned NOTHING during my whole lifetime.
We must not encourage these young people to go war. We must not glorify paid mercenaries. We must demand that our gov’t provide young people equally lucrative, peaceful opportunities for those who need them. That is something worth fighting for, not an education, not a big bonus or the GI bill.
Is it right to have to KILL to get an education?
Is it right to have to KILL to get a decent job?
Is it right to have to KILL to have a good future?
This whole idea of supporting the troops is INSANE!
It’s nothing more than propaganda to keep the war machine humming without too much resistance from the homefront.
What does supporting the troops mean? Obviously I don’t send money to them. I don’t send them cookies. I don’t write them letters. What ARE we supposed to do to support these mercenaries, and why do we need to support these trained, paid killers at all?
The idea of supporting the troops is a mental set that our gov’t has imposed upon us to keep us from protesting the war. It’s difficult for those who have wanted to protest the war to do it when there is so much pressure to support the troops.
What we should be doing, is remember that these are PAID mercenaries, who’ve chosen this path. We need not support or even sympathize with them. They want money and are willing to KILL for it. In civil society we call these people criminals, murderers or psychopaths. Why do we glorify the mercenaries who do the same?
We must come to the point of CONDEMNING those who become mercenaries. They should be pariahs, as indeed they were treated as such upon returning from the Vietnam war.
But wait a minute… There was a big difference there. There were lots of mercenaries during the Vietnam war for sure. But by far most soldiers were drafted. They didn’t have a choice. Many of them were in college trying to better themselves peacefully, and torn away from their studies, they were turned into killing machines for NO GOOD REASON.
And let’s not forget that this war in Iraq was started for NO GOOD REASON either. At first many of the soldiers were in the Nat’l guard or reserve. But now the new ones signing up are pure mercenaries.
As long as young, impressionable kids think it’s great to be a soldier, who think they’ll get even more attention and respect by being soldier, the cycle will continue.
As long as we continue to respect and support mercenaries, they will continue to attract more aimless kids into the military and private armies.
When we cease to respect and support them, more and more kids will realize that being a soldier isn’t automatically gonna make you a hero. Perhaps when the spitting on soldiers starts again (if it ever was widespread – I doubt it), these kids will think twice about becoming paid mercenaries.
So in reality it is OUR attitude towards the soldiers and the military that either perpetuates endless wars or finally brings us peace when there are no longer any kids willing to become mercenaries and cannon fodder…
We must spread another mindset about soldiers that sees them as the paid mercenaries they truly are, and treats them accordingly. Should we respect paid mercenaries? She would honor them, give them medals, make them into heroes, so that another generation of young kids decides they too want to be tin soldiers?
There will NEVER be peace so long as there are those who will kill and make war for money…
So you can’t claim you support our troops while doing absolutely nothing for them.
People must realize that to SUPPORT our TROOPS we MUST demand that they COME HOME NOW!
It’s not hard to believe that after 4 years of war, the vast majority of our troops want very badly to come home. More than they want the money, more than they want the glory.
Do it for them. Write your congressmen, tell them if they don’t bring the troops home now, you’re gonna send the congressman home, next election!
That is what I call supporting the troops!
ONE TIN SOLDIER
(The Legend of Billy Jack)
words and music by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
Copyright © 1969 by ABC / Dunhill Music, Inc.
Listen children to a story that was written long ago
’bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowin’ come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: With our brothers we will share
all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowin’ come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword,
and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
turned the stone and looked beneath it. Peace on earth was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowin’ come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
Posted by: skip
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